Paula Anderson has been my son's myofascial therapist for the past year. It has been a fascinating journey, so I asked her to join me on the podcast for a two-part series to share what she does.

Today, in Part 1, Paula dives into the benefits of nasal breathing and the importance of getting high-quality sleep. She also sheds light on good oral posture and how it keeps the airway open day and night to help prevent illness and pain, and improve sleep quality.

The four primary goals of myofunctional therapy:

Being able to breathe through the nose, day and night
Having the lips seal
Having the correct tongue posture
Having a proper swallowing pattern

Paula Anderson's Bio:

Paula Anderson is a Qualified Orofacial Myologist and a Registered Dental Hygienist. She has worked in the dental profession for over 20 years. After taking several continuing education classes on craniofacial development and sleep-disordered breathing with her husband, she came across the field of myofunctional therapy.

She instantly realized how that field could be applied to everything they do in dentistry. She also realized that her entire family, including herself, could benefit from this therapy.

From mouth breathing and snoring, ortho relapse, and TMJ, she dove in and learned from the best in the field.

She has always loved holistic health, and working with a team approach to whole-body health and myofunctional therapy is her contribution to this field.

She is IAOM (International Association of Orofacial Myologists) trained and is also a member of the International Association of Orofacial Myologists.

She is also a certified MyoMunchee practitioner. She has lived in the Quad Cities her entire life, and she and her husband have four daughters, two sons-in-law, two grandsons, and several fur babies. They also run a successful dental practice (Anderson Dental), and in her free time, she enjoys spending time with family, especially at her cabin in Wisconsin.

In this episode:

What Paula does in her role as an Orofacial Myologist (6:40)
What does facial myofunctional therapy involve? (9:44)
What is myofunctional therapy used as a treatment for? (10:37)
The goals of myofunctional therapy (13:55)
What enables an infant to swallow properly? (14:44)
Some of the exercises Paula uses to help children position their tongues correctly (18:17)
What a MyoMunchee is, and what it gets used for (25:13)